On a busy street corner, in the fading light of a crisp autumn day several years ago, I witnessed a truly bizarre scene.

A man was sprawled on the ground, his limbs pinned by the four cops who arrived ahead of me. He was thrashing around, sweating and screaming incoherently, and I realized with a shock that his flailing limbs were actually lifting the four officers off the ground.

The surreal nature of this scene, reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster rather than a real man, is no longer remarkable. Though at the time I was not aware of the physiological …

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“I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way.” -Creedence Clearwater Revival

Every now and then I will read a scientific explanation that doesn’t blow past my head at warp speed. I may not know what warp speed is, but I must have been paying some attention during Astronomy 101. I actually have a basic understanding of the phenomenon, known as the Supermoon, that will be playing out in tonight’s sky.

It’s actually pretty simple. Because the lunar orbit is an ellipse rather than a circle, its distance from any one vantage changes over time. In this …

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